Yankees-Dodgers World Series history: Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Robinson, Reggie Jackson and more magical moments

As World Series duels go, none is as time-honored, as marbled with history and classical moments, as the Yankees versus the Dodgers. They are the two flagship franchises of Major League Baseball, wielding historical and financial might like none other, and for the 12th time they’re going to meet in the Fall Classic. It is the most frequent of playoff clashes in MLB, and it’s not a close race. 

Their World Series rivalry began when they shared the same city and persisted even when the two teams occupied opposite coasts and opposite ends of the continent. They’ve played World Series games in four different stadia, three of which number among the most iconic venues in sports. Their games have featured numberless Hall of Famers and almost as many inner-circle legends of baseball. So as the two clubs get ready to clash for the sport’s highest honor once again – for the 12th time, to repeat – it’s a fitting occasion to look back at the sprawling history of Yankees-Dodgers World Series encounters. 

Let’s do that now, starting with their first head-to-head encounter in 1941 and going through their most recent one – at least until the first pitch of the 2024 World Series flies on Friday. 

1941: Owen’s dropped strike (Yankees in five)

In the first Yankees-Dodgers World Series, the inter-borough New York City rivals came in having each authored 100-win regular seasons. For Brooklyn, it was the team’s first pennant in more than 20 years. Game 1 occasioned a then-record crowd of 68,500 at Yankee Stadium. The series turned in Game 4 at Ebbets Field. With the Yankees holding a 2-1 advantage in the series, the Dodgers appeared poised to tie it, as they led 4-3 going into the ninth. Brooklyn reliever Hugh Casey got the first two outs of the frame and then he and Yankees outfielder Tommy Henrich worked one another to a full count. Casey landed a curveball for a called strike three and what initially appeared to be the final out of the game. However, the ball got away from catcher Mickey Owen, and an alert Henrich was able to sprint to first base before Owen could wrangle the ball and throw him out. Unfortunately for the Dodgers, that brought up the meat of the Yankee lineup, starting with Joe DiMaggio – he of the 56-game hit streak earlier that same season. DiMaggio singled, Charlie Keller doubled, Bill Dickey drew a walk, and Joe Gordon hit his own double. The Yankees won the game 7-4 and then closed out the series the next day with a Game 5 win. 

1947: Gionfriddo robs DiMaggio (Yankees in seven)

The Yankees won the pennant on the strength of a June 19-game win streak, and the Dodgers came in powered by Jackie Robinson’s pioneering rookie campaign. Game 1 made history the moment it started, as it was the first-ever televised World Series game. Game 4 saw Yankees starter Bill Bevens almost craft an unlikely no-hitter – unlikely first because Bevens in the regular season went just 7-13 with a worse-than-average ERA and also unlikely because he wound up walking 10 batters (!) in Game 4. One out from a World Series no-hitter and staked to a 2-1 lead, Dodgers manager Burt Shotton sent up reserve infielder Cookie Lavagetto to pinch hit for Eddie Stanky. With two on and two out, Lavagetto lasered a double off the wall to end Bevens’ bid for history and, more essentially, give the Dodgers a 3-2 walk-off win. That win evened the series at 2-2. 

Game 6 brought about the latest Yankee Stadium attendance record – 74,065 clicks of the turnstiles – and a back-and-forth game. A signature play came in the bottom of the sixth when DiMaggio got to the plate as the potential tying run. DiMaggio yanked a Joe Hatten pitch deep down the left-field line for what might have been a game-tying homer. However, Al Gionfriddo, patrolling left as a defensive replacement for the Dodgers, was on the beat:

As baseball lore has it, when DiMaggio booted the dirt it was a perhaps never-before-glimpsed example of his on-field stoicism receding for just a second. Baseball, though, is a sport of bathos, and Gionfriddo’s miracle snare did not herald any larger triumph. In Game 7 the next day, the Yankees overcame an early deficit to win 5-2 and secure their 11th World Series championship. 

1949: Henrich makes history (Yankees in five)

The Yankees prevailed over the Red Sox in a thrilling pennant race under first-year manager Casey Stengel. The Dodgers, meantime, edged the Cardinals by a single game in the National League. Buoyed by those fraught finishes and each with 97 wins, the Yankees and Dodgers seemed primed for a classic. Game 1 certainly stuck to the script, as Henrich again made his October presence felt. This time it was via the first walk-off home run in World Series history. In the bottom of the ninth in a scoreless game, Henrich drove Don Newcombe’s third pitch of the at-bat over the fence in right for a Yankees win. Here are Red Barber and Mel Allen on the call: 

Allie Reynolds was another hero for the Yankees. In addition to notching a complete-game shutout in the opener, he also retired 10 straight batters in a Game 4 high-leverage relief appearance. Yes, the Yankees closed it out in five games, but three of the games were decided by a single run and another by just two. 

1952: Martin saves the day (Yankees in seven) 

DiMaggio’s retirement following the 1951 season didn’t perceptibly diminish Stengel’s juggernaut, as the likes of Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, and Hank Bauer stepped into the breach. Also making his presence felt at the most timely of junctures was young infielder Billy Martin. It happened in the deciding Game 7 of the World Series. The entire series had been a to-and-fro affair, as the two clubs alternated wins through the first six games. In Game 7, the Yankees clung to a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the seventh. The Dodgers, however, had the bases loaded with two outs. With the count 2-2, Robinson popped up a pitch from Bob Kuvaza to the right side. The harmless-seeming ball would normally belong to Yankees first baseman Joe Collins, but he lost the ball in the afternoon shadows of Ebbets Field. That’s when Martin dashed in from second base to secure the ball at his shins and prevent the Dodgers from tying the game. 

Kuzava kept Brooklyn scoreless in the final two innings, and the Yankees claimed their fourth straight title. The Dodgers, though, made some vital history prior to falling to the Yankees in agonizing fashion. The opener, a 4-2 Dodgers win, saw Joe Black become the first Black pitcher to win a World Series game. 

1953: The first to five (Yankees in six)

The Yankees had previously won four World Series in a row from 1936-39 under Joe McCarthy. No team, however, had ever won five titles in succession. Stengel’s pinstripers in ’53, though, managed that titan’s lift. That unprecedented accomplishment came at the expense of the Dodgers, who won 105 games during the 1953 regular season. As was the case the prior October, Martin played the hero, but this time it was because of his bat. He notched a game-tying homer in the second contest of the series, an eventual Yankee win. Then in Game 6, Martin in the bottom of the ninth with the score tied 3-3 singled through the middle of the infield off Clem Labine to score Hank Bauer with the championship-clinching run.

Martin for the series went 12 for 24 with a pair of home runs and eight RBI. No team before or since the 1949-53 Yankees has won five World Series in a row.  

1955: The Bums break through 

The ’55 World Series remains a classic thanks to lasting moment upon lasting moment and the fact that it yielded the Dodgers’ first and only title in Brooklyn. It seemed an unlikely time for it, given the aging Dodger core, but a league-best 98 wins during the regular season proved “Dem Bums” had one last crack within them. Jackie Robinson’s buccaneering steal of home in Game 1 remains a World Series touchstone, but layered behind it is the fact that the Dodgers began the series in an 0-2 hole. They rebounded to take all three games at Ebbets Field, but Whitey Ford forced yet another Game 7 between the two teams with his complete game in the penultimate contest. In the determinative Game 7, the Dodgers led 2-0 in the bottom of the sixth. Yet the Yankees were primed to strike with two on, no outs, and AL MVP Yogi Berra at the plate. Berra lashed a pitch from Johnny Podres to the left-field corner – presumably for extra bases and a tie game. Out in deep left, Sandy Amoros, who’d just been inserted for defensive purposes by manager Walter Alston, broke for the ball. He’d been shading the lefty-swinging Berra toward center, which initially made Amoros’ task seem almost impossible. It was not, at least not for him. 

Amoros not only had a long run to make on Berra’s sinking drive, but he also had to negotiate the unfamiliar Yankee Stadium corner. That defensive assignment was the first time Amoros had ever taken the field at the Stadium. He was then able to hustle the ball to Pee Wee Reese, who cut down Gil McDougald at first base for the double play. Hank Bauer was retired on a groundout to end the peril. Podres stared down another jam in the eighth before working a clean ninth and securing the long-sought belt and title for Brooklyn. 

Podres twirled a pair of complete games with a 1.00 ERA, and for those efforts he was given the first-ever World Series MVP award. 

1956: The flawless Larsen (Yankees in seven)

In Game 2, Yankees right-hander Don Larsen struggled badly, allowing four walks and four runs in just 1 2/3 innings en route to a 13-8 Dodgers win. Larsen’s meltdown helped the Dodgers take a 2-0 lead in the series. Game 5 saw them tied 2-2. While Stengel could’ve thought better of using Larsen again after his performance in Game 2, he stuck with the 26-year-old and let him know the start was his, as the story goes, by leaving a baseball in his shoe on the morning of Game 5. Larsen took that ball – let’s say it was the actual game ball for purposes of narrative continuity – and spun one of the most legendary starts to which baseball has ever borne witness. Across nine innings and 97 pitches against a Dodger offense that ranked second in the NL in runs scored that year, Larsen didn’t permit a single baserunner. It was the first no-hitter and still only perfect game in World Series history. Larsen also worked in leverage for those nine taut innings, as the Yankee hitters gave Larsen just two runs of support. In contrast to his Game 2 control struggles, Larsen in Game 5 allowed only one three-ball count, to the second batter of the game. Vin Scully, take it away: 

Game 6 saw another miracle of a pitching performance. Clem Labine, the Dodgers’ relief ace during the regular season (he led the majors in games finished and saves and made 62 appearances), was pressed into duty as a starter for Game 6. He rose to the demands of the moment and then some, as Labine threw 10 shutout innings and never allowed a runner to reach third base. Labine’s opposite number, Bob Turley, was almost as good until Jackie Robinson got to him for a walk-off single in the home half of the 10th. 

Game 7 afforded no dramatics, as the Yankees barged to an early lead and wound up winning the deciding contest 9-0. Robinson made the last out – a swinging strikeout – in what would be the final game of his luminous and sky-scraping career. Changes were soon afoot, as within two years the Brooklyn Dodgers would become the Los Angeles Dodgers in a trailblazing journey they made with the Giants to the virgin territory of California. Reese, the Dodgers’ stalwart shortstop and future Hall of Famer, would be the only player to play in every Brooklyn Dodgers-New York Yankees World Series.  

1963: Dodger pitching dominance (Dodgers in four) 

Here we have the first Dodgers-Yankees World Series since the former relocated across the country. The Yankees were in the Fall Classic for the fourth time in the decade, but signs of organizational decline were starting to show. The Dodgers, in contrast, were entering a period of pitching-driven dominance, thanks largely to a front of the rotation that featured Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. The excellence of that rotation in October of ’63 was keenly felt by Yankee hitters. In Game 1, Koufax set a World Series record with 15 strikeouts in a 5-2 Dodgers win in the Bronx. Podres pitched exceptionally well in Game 2, a 4-1 Dodgers win, and in Game 3 Drysdale crafted a three-hit shutout. The Dodgers turned to Koufax to secure the sweep, and that he did with a complete game in which he out-dueled Whitey Ford in a 2-1 Dodgers win. In the process, Koufax set the record for most strikeouts in a four-game series. Across those four contests, the Dodger used just four pitchers. The fourth, relief ace Ron Perrannoski, worked just 2/3 of an inning.

1977: Reg-gie! Reg-gie! (Yankees in six)

Coming off a World Series sweep in 1976 at the hands of the Big Red Machine from Cincinnati, the Yankees, helmed by torpedoes-forever-damned owner George Steinbrenner, spent the subsequent winter reinforcing an already strong roster. The chief addition was free-agent slugger Reggie Jackson. While the Yankees’ regular season in ’77 was notable for its controversies and tumults, to which Jackson was often central, they did indeed make it back to the World Series. They reprised their World Series rivalry against the Dodgers, who were guided by first-year manager Tommy Lasorda and powered by four hitters with 30 or more homers. The Yankees, meantime, were skippered by Billy Martin, the World Series hero of yore who was at the time between firings. 

Jackson homered in the Yankees’ Game 4 win at Dodger Stadium and then in their Game 5 loss. That was prelude to Game 6, when, with the Yankees up 3-2 in the series, Jackson on three swings remade himself into a Yankees and World Series legend. 

With that final series-clinching blast, Jackson joined Babe Ruth as the only players to hit three home runs in a single World Series game. Going back to his final at-bat of Game 5, it was four home runs on four swings for Jackson and five total for the six-game series. He also amassed a then-record 10 runs scored and 25 total bases for the series. 

Martin and Jackson had nearly brawled in the Fenway Park visitor’s dugout in June of that season and did little to hide their antipathy for one another, but all the dissension and shared contempt was forgotten, or at least tabled, on that night. Jackson was already, in his own words, the Straw the Stirs the Drink. With his Game 6 attainments, he became Mr. October. 

1978: The miracle continues (Yankees in six)

The Yankees weren’t supposed to be in the 1978 World Series. At one point, they trailed the Boston Red Sox by 14 games in the AL East race, but the Yankees caught them, edged them in a white-knuckled tiebreaker game, and then bounced the Royals in the ALCS. That set up a rematch of the 1977 World Series. After the first two games of the series, both won by the Dodgers, the Yankees appeared to be buried. Game 2 featured one of the most memorable “power athwart power” pitcher-hitter encounters of all. Reggie Jackson, the dominating presence in the ’77 World Series, faced off against rookie Bob Welch, owner of one of the biggest fastballs in the game. With two on and two out in the ninth inning of a 4-3 game, Jackson and Welch matched wits and skills for nine pitches with the game hanging in the balance. 

Welch – and thus the Dodgers – prevailed. Now the Yankees were ready to counterpunch like no team ever had before. Behind the pitching of Ron Guidry and the doggedly brilliant fielding of third baseman Graig Nettles, the Yankees took Game 3. Then in Game 4, Jackson was again a main character. The Dodgers led 3-0 in the sixth thanks to Reggie Smith’s homer earlier in the game. The Yankees plated a run and had two on with one out when Lou Piniella lined one to Bill Russell at shortstop. Russell let the ball drop in an effort to turn a double play. Russell stepped on second to retire Jackson running from first, but Russell’s throw to first base struck Jackson on the hip and bounded into the outfield, allowing Thurman Munson to score the second Yankee run of the game. The Dodgers argued vigorously that Jackson had intentionally gotten in the way of the throw. 

Umpires found the Dodgers’ objections unpersuasive, and the play stood as an E6. The Yankees went on to tie the game in the eighth and win it in extras to even the series at 2-2. The next day, one newspaper referred to Jackson’s timely deflection as the “sacrifice thigh.”

The last two games of the series were non-competitive, as the Yankees outscored the Dodgers 19-4 in Games 5 and 6. In an act of reprisal, Jackson homered off Welch in the final game. His two homers in the series helped him set the record for most home runs (7) in consecutive World Series. Another World Series first was also notched, as the Yankees became the first team ever to fall behind 0-2 in a World Series and then go on to win the next four games.  

1981: An elevator and a pinch-hitter (Dodgers in six)

The second team to fall behind 0-2 in a World Series and then go on to win the next four games? That would be the 1981 Dodgers. The third Dodgers-Yankees World Series matchup in a span of five years was the capstone to the strike-shortened ’81 season. The Yankees took the first two games of the series thanks in part to the pitching of former Dodger Tommy John. Then, however, the Dodgers barged back in Game 3 with a complete-game win from rookie phenom Fernando Valenzuela. Game 4 was a slugfest in the favor of the Dodgers, and Game 5 was a pitchers’ duel – Jerry Reuss against Guidry – also in the Dodgers’ favor. Down 3-2 and headed back to New York, George Steinbrenner, perhaps as a harebrained motivational tactic, unveiled his October surprise. Here’s the UPI lede dated Oct. 26, 1981:

“New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner suffered a possible broken right hand and a cut lip in a fight with two young Los Angeles Dodger fans who made deprecating remarks about his ballclub in a hotel elevator.” 

After the alleged fracas, Steinbrenner alerted hotel security about the incident, but the two assailants were nowhere to be found. One needn’t look far to find those who suspected Steinbrenner’s tale was concocted. Whatever the truth, he perhaps wasn’t done injecting himself into the story. In the fourth inning of Game 6, the score was tied 1-1, and the Yankees had two on with two out. To the shock of those observing the game, Yankees manager Bob Lemon lifted his starter Tommy John, who’d thrown seven scoreless in Game 2, for a pinch-hitter. That pinch-hitter, Bobby Murcer, flew out deep to right to end the frame. The Yankee bullpen in place of John then proceeded to hemorrhage runs, and the Dodgers won easily, 9-2, to close out the series with four straight victories. Yanks reliever George Frazier became just the second pitcher ever to be saddled with three losses in a single World Series (the other, Lefty Williams of the 1919 White Sox, was being paid by gamblers to sustain his three losses). For the first time, three players – Ron Cey, Pedro Guerrero, and Steve Yeager of the Dodgers – shared World Series MVP laurels. 

Later, Murray Chass of the New York Times would write this of the crucial and, from the Yankee standpoint, condemnable decision to bat for John so early in the game: 

“Why did Lemon bat for John? All indications point to Steinbrenner as the reason. In the days and months after the game, players said they heard that Steinbrenner had called the dugout and told Lemon that the Yankees had to score runs that night and that the manager shouldn’t miss any chances to score.”

Soon after the series ended, Steinbrenner issued a formal apology to the city of New York for the team’s performance. It’s possible the apology, if one was to be given at all, should have been on behalf of himself rather than the players. 

As for the forthcoming 2024 installment of the Yankees-Dodgers World Series rivalry, it must live up to a prior body of work that is proud, compelling, thrilling, and at times ridiculous. Let all of that now flow.